Simulating the Monty Hall problem in a DNA sequencing machine

Noam Mamet; Gil Harari; Adva Zamir; Ido Bachelet

doi:10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2019.107122

Simulating the Monty Hall problem in a DNA sequencing machine

Comput Biol Chem. 2019 Dec:83:107122. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2019.107122. Epub 2019 Sep 11.

Authors

Noam Mamet¹, Gil Harari², Adva Zamir², Ido Bachelet²

Affiliations

¹ Augmanity, Rehovot, Israel. Electronic address: nmamet@gmail.com.
² Augmanity, Rehovot, Israel.

PMID: 31563020
DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2019.107122

Abstract

The Monty Hall problem is a decision problem with an answer that is surprisingly counter-intuitive yet provably correct. Here we simulate and prove this decision in a high-throughput DNA sequencing machine, using a simple encoding. All possible scenarios are represented by DNA oligonucleotides, and gameplay decisions are implemented by sequencing these oligonucleotides from specific positions, with a single run simulating more than 12,000,000 independent games. This work highlights high-throughput DNA sequencing as a new tool that could extend existing capabilities and enable new encoding schemes for problems in DNA computing.

Keywords: DNA computing; Monty Hall Problem; Next generation sequencing.

MeSH terms

Computers, Molecular*
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing*
Humans
Problem Solving*
Sequence Analysis, DNA